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My workmate in Perth often makes jokes about my homeland, New Zealand. His favourite is “when you go to New Zealand you wind your clock forward four hours… then back 40 years.”

I chuckle at this with some level of annoyance. I can happily reminisce about the land of the long white cloud, with its slightly backward lifestyle and laid-back attitude.

In many ways New Zealand is very progressive.

The first country to allow woman to vote, it also had a female prime minister in consecutive terms, from two different parties.

In terms of racial matters, the colonisation of the country seemed relatively progressive in relation to how the colonialists treated the indigenous people of other countries they had conquered.

I was proud of the fact that we were a rather liberal country, especially when viewed in relation to our big brother Australia.

However, I am sad to say that this 40-year gap has embarrassed me for the first time. In a short period, with the help of social media and talkback radio, New Zealand has regressed to the dark ages.

The recent racial outburst, in regards to Pat Lam’s Polynesian descent being responsible for the poor performance of the Auckland Blues, can only be described as cowardly, childish and disgusting.

Not all of these comments have been said in malice. Some could have been tongue in cheek.

But the fact that anyone could think, or joke, that his being Polynesian is the reason for their poor form is absurd.

Bear in mind this is the man many thought should have succeeded Graham Henry for the All Blacks coaching job only a few months ago.

This sort of racial vilification has no place in sport.

It conjures thoughts of the dark old days of boxing in America when a black athlete could be glorified and considered the greatest fighter in the world, yet was not allowed to eat in a restaurant with white people.

Perhaps these rednecks have not looked further afield to see how black coaches have succeeded and are revered as great minds of the game.

The perfect example is Mike Tomlin, an African American in his mid 30s.

He has won a Super Bowl and coached in two, been named coach of the year and holds a stellar 68 percent winning percentage. All this in a five-year career.

In four of the last five seasons one of the coaches in the Super Bowl has been African-American, with Tomlin appearing twice.

You would declare this a great career, right?

Well, let us look at how Pat Lam has performed as a coach.

If I remember correctly Pat was given his coaching gig at the end of 2009.

Since this time Auckland rugby, across both the National Provincial Championship and Super Rugby, has a record of 32 wins and 24 losses, with a winning percentage of 57 percent.

Do you know who had a similar winning record and is currently a national hero in two different countries?

Graham Henry.

While coaching Wales he had a record of 20 wins and 13 losses, equating to a winning percentage of 60 percent.

He lost a Lions series and lost a World Cup while coaching the All Blacks.

Before an Auckland supporter now jumps on here and states that Wales is a minnow in European and world rugby I wish to point something out.

Since 1998 the Auckland Blues have finished in the top four of the Super Rugby ladder three times. Do you know who was coaching one of those teams?

Pat Lam, last year!

Since 1998 – that’s 14 years – the Blues have only finished above mid-table three times.

That means that Pat Lam has coached one third of the seasons which one could possibly be described as successes in the last 14 years.

This illusion that the Blues are supposed to be world beaters and a dominant force in New Zealand rugby harks back to the days when they had the entire All Blacks forward pack and a majority of the backline.

This was after the 1995 World Cup loss to South Africa. It’s been 14 years now – let it go.

Here are their final ladder positions since 1998.

Super 12: 9th, 6th, 11th, 6th, 1st, 5th and 7th (in only two out of seven seasons did they finish in the top half of the competition).

Super 14: 8th, 4th, 6th, 9th and 7th (in two out of five seasons they’ve finished in the top half of the competition).

Super Rugby: 4th.

I somehow do not see the problem being Pat Lam.

Yes, they are performing poorly this year. But is this all his fault?

I was very critical of Mark Hammet for ejecting Nonu and Weepu. However it seems that he has pulled an old medieval trick by hurling their carcasses over the wall to infect someone else’s castle.

Since jettisoning these two the Hurricanes have looked like a respectable side and appear to be playing with more vigour.

In contrast Nonu was busy shopping himself to Japanese clubs during the pre-season, rather than playing. Piri Weepu is pretty large for what is essentially a land mammal.

These are supposed to be your leaders; good luck to anyone.

So perhaps it is not Lam who needs to be blamed.

Perhaps some of the players have post-World Cup hangovers, which cannot be cured by his style of coaching. I dare say no one could fix it.

Lam has been let down by his players; he has been successful before and will continue to be no matter where he goes.

Maybe the Auckland and New Zealand public should realise this before we ship another one of our quality coaches overseas.

The Crowd Says (50) | Page 1 of Comments

In a short period, with the help of social media and talkback radio, New Zealand has regressed to the dark ages. Really??? shows how much influence has been allocated to media. NZ has progressed like every other country and like every other country it still has it’s share of negative and positive aspects. As a maori living 13 years in Aussie (Qld which I love) and now in California I have seen many many negative aspects of life portrayed in all of the places I have lived and visited. The thing that no-one has established not that it makes any difference was how many negative racial comments did Pat Lam receive from Polynesian or Maori. Because believe it or not we have always been great at running down the “brothers”. The recent racial outburst, in regards to Pat Lam’s Polynesian descent being responsible for the poor performance of the Auckland Blues, can only be described as cowardly, childish and disgusting I agree with this wholeheartedly and it has been evidenced in Aus in US and it is totally unacceptable. But to use a broad brush that captures all those in NZ is wrong, please always stipulate it is only the very/ very few and for some reason they seem to get so much attention. NZ, Aus, US etc are great countries but the reality is there are idiots all over the globe and the worse thing is when they are given media attention.

i agree geoff – VG racism is everywhere. were u aware of the anti-indian sentiment aus has or the perception that Indians have that they’re not welcomed in aus? do u realise the treatment abo’s?
what happened to Lam is disgraceful and disgusting but everyone including Lam need to f get over it and get on with it. racism will always be around. u can either cry about or move on and over come it. “there is no better revenge than living well”. Lam needs put this racist cr4p behind him and get back to work and start getting his team to play with some team work and pride. his ultimate revenge to those racist remarks is to have his team perform and give him some success

Lam may not be the problem with the Blues. Blues have lost 5 from 6 there is a problem. End of the day it comes down to the players on the field and the decisions they make when it counts that determines the outcome, Lam can only do so much preparing and directing its up to the players when the whistle is blown. Henry may help guide Lam and help shine some new light on things. Racist has no place in Rugby All Black true supporters know this better than anyone and anyone who thinks any different are not a supporter of rugby or anyone that I would associate with I would like to think I speak for majority of kiwis.

Pat Lam has already coached in Europe. If he was in demand he would have been kept on. Saying the blame isn’t his is the same logic as saying it’s Weepu’s fault or Nonu’s fault. Lam is clearly a poor selector, and his sides generally look tactically rudderless.

poor selector? he’s fielded more than enough quality worldClass players in every game this season. if they’re not performing on the field its the players fault. Lam is to blame, but so are the players, in fact the players are more so. they’re the ones that look like idiots out there when they lose. 1 from 6? thats pathetic. to lose to rebels is unacceptable.
i believe Lam needs to go but with him should go the rest of the Blues squad. they’re a disgrace. rip up all their contracts now and tell them they have to re-earn a place in the squad.

Coached in Europe is not an argument. The hardest comps in World Rugby are in the Southern Hemisphere, Europe is a place where our coaches pick up some experience but if they want to be in the mix for the AB’s, Wallabies or Springboks gig they come home when they think they are ready.

Despise any racists and agree with anyone who thinks it is out-of shape/form/attitude from the players who are crueling the Blues’ season. These guys are paid well, have all the facilities and yet still need someone else to blame.

Agree about the racism and Geoff pretty much summed it up for me.But to say Lam was thought by “many” to be GH’s successor was news to me! Never even crossed my mind.There’s a whole lot more to running a team than yelling athe blokes you picked at half-time.The way the Blues have been playing,their tactical ineptitude and their negative body-language shows me that all is not well in the state of Denmark.
Vanilla—-I used to have a sticker on my fridge-inheirited but I left it on—that said “Don’t let the turkeys drag you down”

moaman – yeah this rumour of Lam being GH’s successor comes from when GH was addressing a pacific island conference and he was saying how the PI’s had contributed immensely and he wouldnt be surprised if Lam ended up coaching the AB’s. a throw away line that has gathered its own momentum

Super 12: 9th, 6th, 11th, 6th, 1st, 5th and 7th (in only two out of seven seasons did they finish in the top half of the competition).

Isn’t 6th in the top half of the table? So 3/7

Super 14: 8th, 4th, 6th, 9th and 7th (in two out of five seasons they’ve finished in the top half of the competition).

Isn’t 7th in the top half of the table? So 3/5.

Also just wondering why you chose to mention the RWC Final loss to South Africa but then start your stats since 1998 when the three years in between the RWC loss and 1999 the Blues finished 1st 1st and 2nd?

I think you will find that in a 12 team competition the half way point is actually 6.5, you cant have half a team. Therefore the numbers 6 and 7 are used as the mid point, this is then divided by 2 to get the number 6.5 thus if you finish 6th or 7th you are exactly mid table. that way you have 5 teams above and 5 teams below this point. Therefore finishing 6th or 7th in a 12 team competition means that you are exactly the middle. The same logic applies to a 15 team competition as well.

And yes i did start my stats at 1998 to highlight the fact that in the previous 14 years the auckland blues have been mediocre at best and highlighting that blues supporters still have a dillusion of grandour based around those 3 years. This was stated in the article. This also coincided with the last tim auckland had any success, the finished 2nd that year.

Here are the other teams average finishing position since 98

Wellington
6.57

Crusaders
2.43

Chiefs
7.14

Highlanders
7.29

Auckland
6.07

Therfore you are marginally NZ’s second best team and a looooooong way from being the crusaders. You also arent that far ahead of the chiefs and highlanders. nothing special here.

“In terms of racial matters, the colonisation of the country seemed relatively progressive in relation to how the colonialists treated the indigenous people of other countries they had conquered.” <– Translation: the colonists got shot to pieces by the indigenous people repeatedly so had to come to more equitable arrangements.